Help end medicine poverty

-
Our charity is a member of the Prescription Charges Coalition who work tirelessly to help people with long-term conditions such as Hughes syndrome/APS.

The NHS prescription charge has long been a contentious issue. This charge has been abolished in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, leaving patients in England alone in the UK in having to pay for their prescriptions.  Although there are many exemptions from the prescription charge, these appear illogical and unfair.


A survey by the BMJ in 2015 found that almost 90% of health professionals say prescription charges deter patients from collecting medicines, yet still the government refuses to change the system in England.

Please help medicine poverty by signing this petition. 



Comments

  1. Unknown9 April 2015 at 13:39

    Medicine is the diagnosis, treatment, and, increasingly, hopefully, the prevention of what ails us. Most people's experience of medicine is likely focused on diagnosis and, unfortunately, the treatment of symptoms, the mitigation of the condition, with time bringing an amelioration of the problem. The excitement of regenerative medicine is the ability to replace or regenerate cells, tissues, or organs. So instead of a lifetime of taking injections, tablets, or using prostheses, patients actually become healthy again. Looking at tissue engineering, the classic approach is cells + scaffold = restored functionality. More information you can find at http://www.altairsystem.it/medicina-rigenerativa/

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Direct oral anticoagulants and APS

-
The UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has recently issued advice concerning use of direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) in patients with APS. This advice may result in warfarin being preferred to DOACs for patients with APS until more evidence is available.   The chief aim of drug treatment in patients with APS is to prevent blood clots or strokes.   The main drug used for many years has been warfarin, which thins the blood. There is good evidence from clinical trials that warfarin is effective in preventing clots in patients with APS. There are some disadvantages to using warfarin. Patients have to have regular blood tests (called INR tests ) to make sure that the level of thinning of the blood is at just the right level – if the dose of warfarin is too high there is an increased risk of bleeding. Furthermore, warfarin interacts with a number of other medications so that when those drugs are being taken the INR tests may need to be done more frequently
Read more

Important information for patients taking hydroxychloroquine

-
If you are an APS patient who regularly takes hydroxychloroquine (trade names Plaquenil and Quinoric in the UK), please be aware that the Royal College of Ophthalmologists (RCO) have updated their guidelines regarding eye testing.  This is because recent studies have shown that hydroxychloroquine retinopathy is more common than previously reported – around 7 in every 100 patients - especially with long-term use over five years or heavy doses. The risk is much higher in patients who have been taking the drug for 20 years or more: in these patients, between 20-50 out of 100 will develop retinopathy.  This type of retinopathy, also known as ‘bull’s eye maculopathy’, damages the retina and symptoms can include partial colour-blindness, loss of fine detail, blurring or distortion, night blindness and permanent central vision loss.  Therefore, the RCO now recommends that all patients who take hydroxychloroquine for longer than five years should be referred by their GP, or APS specialis
Read more

Medicines Discovery Catapult

-
We have published a blog about APS after being approached by the government initiative, Medicines Discovery Catapult. The idea is to promote antiphospholipid syndrome ( APS ) to researchers and scientists in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. It has given us the opportunity to alert the drug industry to APS and how important new medication is for patients. https://md.catapult.org.uk/what-is-antiphospholipid-syndrome-aps/
Read more